Cha-ching! (7-21)

One has to wonder: Is Richard Weber’s favorite movie “Groundhog Day?”

Last year, the owner of Springhouse Gardens in Nicholasville, Ky., was honored with a 2010 Landscape Design Award by the Perennial Plant Association. The year before, the owner of Springhouse Gardens in Nicholasville, Ky., was honored with a 2009 Landscape Design Award by the Perennial Plant Association.

The winning project for 2010 had Weber, also a landscape architect, create a residential design for a client in Lexington. The challenge facing him and his staff: The site was comparable to many suburban residential lots and faced the many of the same constraints. In addition, his client had requested enhanced privacy, year-round color, and an overall fun and casual feel to the garden. A partridge in a pear tree was optional.

Weber studied his charge – then delivered. What set his design apart, PPA judges noted, were the varied plant selections, the creative solution to site conditions and a focus on plant combinations that provide stellar year-round interest. In other words: the design was an extension of what people see daily at his garden center.

Versatility has many rewards, not the least of which in Weber's case is national acclaim. The subsequent "Cha-ching!" ain't bad, either.

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